Keep in mind that people don't write messages on the Internet nearly as often saying, "My 40D hasn't given me a lick of trouble" as "this %*$#&& is broken". It's the nature of the beast.
I truly am sorry your camera failed you, Lenny. It would be super if every single copy was truly bulletproof, but alas if it had been 2,000 Pounds you might have looked at other models, no?
My Canon D30 from 2000 is still going strong. I gave it to my best friend, and he's harder on hardware than anyone on the planet. He can't keep a set of ear buds for more than a week without pulling a wire out, or a laptop with an unbroken display for more than a month. He found a phone plan that gives him a new cell phone every month, and sometimes he still has to go without until the new one arrives. Yet my old D30, which was $3,000+ when new and had 20K+ actuations on it when I parted with it, is still unbroken in his hands for 3 years now. And that was the model they said had the flimsy plastic construction.
wish we could get a 1x3 for 2k pounds double that and your nearer the mark.
I understand what you are saying but this camera has not been hammered or abused
in any way, I would estimate about 30k accuations.
Yup my 20d and 30d are still going strong and in fact I will have to shoot with
the 30d this weekend. However what I am getting at is that Canon in the last couple of years Canon seem to be having issues, 1dmk3 focussing, 5dmk2's falling over in Antartica when others were not. I am not the only one with reliabililty issues with the 40d there were reports of "vibration problems after pressing the shutter"
several months ago.
Therefore I can only conclude that Canon are rushing products to market
before proper testing and build quality is not what it was.
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
The truth is that people like me (& Nikon) push hard to get Canon to bring out new models with all the newest toys. New features are not being tested well enough before they are released. Pretty obvious but we are all in a new era where 'rush to market' is the goal.
I also suspect (no, I don't have evidence) that a much higher percentage of parts are now coming from Chinese factories and the QC is causing problems.
It's not unlike the problem facing auto mfg. in America. The quality just kept declining and more & more people switched to other mfg.
I suspect that Canon is well aware and that we're going to see some improvement or else the trickle that are switching to Nikon will become a avalanche.
Personally, I think Canon is still the best product and I'm staying the course but ya gotta wonder.
The other way to look at it .... I have to admit that after 38 years as a full time pro that in many ways, what I sell is better than ever and some of what I sell is not nearly as good as what I produced 38 years ago. Even with digital being so amazing, there is no way in my mind that a 20x24 portrait today beats the luxurious quality from a 6x7 CPS neg on the old Kodak paper. That's when they used real silver and skin tone was superb.
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
My 20D just died Saturday after 4 years of very hard work. Rodeo arenas, drag strips, circle tracks, construction sites, offshore and onshore drilling sites, many outdoor portrait sessions and probably close to 50k actuations. I was shooting a ball game and somehow it just started firing by itself, even with the power turned off and "err99" Pulled out my 10D that hasn't hardly been used in the last 4 years and used it for a reunion that night, no problems, worked like a charm, just seemed incredibly slow compared to the 20D.
My original D30 is still being used by the person I sold it to and she loves it, it had 25k+ actuations when I sold it to her, she doesn't use it like I did, but I actually loved the look of the images from that camera, had a velvia like quality that none have had since.
If anyone knows a good repair center in the Houston, Tx. area please let me know, I guess I'll get it fixed and sell it and maybe go for a 50D or maybe the new 7D if I can get one fast enough.
I'm certain Nikon makes as good a camera as anyone but my 20D, 10D and even the 3K D30 have made me multitudes of money vs. cost factor and I'll never regret deciding to go that Canon way.
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
I would suggest that you send it in to Canon for an estimate (or phone them first) I think you'll find that the repair is way more than the camera is worth. Many of us have found that once one part gets repaired, it's not long after that something else breaks, just like a car.
50D's dropped a huge amount when the 7D was announced. There have been a few on this forum who wanted to sell their 50D and found it was not worth it. It may be the best 'bang for the buck' around and a cheap new one still has full warranty. If you go that route, I'd suggest that you experiment with lower rez jpgs on the camera. The 50D full files will seem like molasses on your computer compared to the 20D.
It's real nice when you can get full value out of a piece of equipment these days. Congrats.
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
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